Wednesday, 29 July 2015

I'm currently reading Chengar Qordath's The Life and Times of a Winning Pony (which I'm surprised to see hardly anyone else has reviewed), and that should be a PR spotlight either next week or the one after. No spoilers, please! Right, back to today's task, which is the reviewing of the standard five pony fanfics. These are all short, and they're a mixture of stuff I've had on my RiL list for too long, things I came across semi-randomly and (in one case) the newest completed story I could find. Today's batch consists of:

Sometimes, getting your cutie mark doesn't mean you have all the answers.

The same author's Accolade rather bored me (PR 21), but I enjoyed this simple – and very old – fic a bit more. A cute little thing with a pleasant ending that made me smile, let down a little by a few really basic typos. ★★★

Before Equestria. Before the Elements of Harmony. Before Celestia and Luna. Before Discord. There was a seed.

Georg's entry for the EqD "Outside Insight" contest last year. It's pretty much a retelling of the history of Equestria (yep, Discord's first rule and all) from the Tree of Harmony's point of view. Well enough written, but actually a bit on the dull side. ★★

Not all essences are created equal. The Spirit of Destruction is meeting his match with the ponies after a thousand years of being completely out of practice.

Not much to see from this new author, unfortunately. There are some interesting things that could be done with a draconequus devoted to something other than chaos, but this fic doesn't do them. Instead, it includes an excruciating meta scene about EqD, with a dig at (I assume) Equestria Girls thrown in. Also, "he threw the cab pony at the ground who grunted". ★

Misty Moonrise just can't handle the chaos of a noisy crowd, but Lilypad aims to change that.

Another entry in EH's Misty Moonrise continuity, this is quite a pleasant read. It's probably not a story that's going to astound you with its emotional impact or astonishing writing, but it reads smoothly enough. This underwent a minor revision after I read it, but its rating would not have changed. ★★★

Celestia has an important lesson for Twilight that puts her in an uncomfortable place.

One of those stories in which Celestia imparts deep and meaningful wisdom to the newly ascended Twilight by being irritatingly obscure. Better than that makes it sound, with a few smiles thrown in, but unless you're better than me at working out allegorical stuff (or read the story's comments) it may well be a bit confusing. ★★